Is it possible to match a Pantone spot color using Color-Logic?

Some of our clients have asked if it's possible to match a Pantone spot color (non metallic) using Color-Logic – In effect, creating a metallic version of a Pantone spot color! For this to be possible, you have to take in to account the visual appearance of the metallic ink. Silver ink has a visual appearance of about 30% black, so, by printing any color over the top of that silver ink, it's going to darken down and go dirtier as you're literally adding 30% black to that color!

The only Pantone colors that could be matched effectively, would be those that have at least 30% black within the color build – So, for example, if the Pantone color had a CMYK color build of "40c 82y and 30k", you could edit the overprinting color and remove that 30% black – the silver ink you then print on top of would simulate that greyness. If your Pantone color was 40c 82y and 50k, then you would edit the color and remove only 30%k leaving you with 20%k. The silver again making up the remainder.

One other factor that needs to be taken in to account, is that with a wet trap inline printing process, you don't get perfect trapping of the overprinting inks – You only get about 80% of the inks trapping. The only way to get pure trapping, is to print UV or print as a two pass, allowing the silver to cure. The reason we mention this last factor is that even if your CMYK Pantone color had some black in it that you could edit out, your colors may need to be increased by about 20% to counteract the decreased trapping of those overprinting inks when printing wet trap inline.


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The above visual shows you how a typical Pantone color would print if you printed it over a metallic ink.

IMPORTANT: The Color-Logic System is it's own unique color space designed for metallic ink printing. The colors that are in our swatch book are the colors that you can design and print with.
